I'm alive! And with a new chapter! I won't bother you with more rambling except in my later A/N.

So, here, enjoy the chapter~


Two days pass quickly without the two sisters' notice. They had a pleasant time decorating the house, going shopping, and spending their evening with each other's company. They cooked dinner at home, one person a night in turn, and watched Christmas-themed movies in the living room, curled up in the sofa with blankets and hot chocolate. It's been a while for the sisters to spend real time with just each other since Elsa's been occupied with school works around the end of term and Anna too with the addition of having a boyfriend. All these things apart, two sisters just appreciate their time together as much as possible.

They've visited the coffee shop for breakfast one morning. Jack wasn't on the shift. In fact, he hasn't taken as many shifts as he used to ever since his hand has barely recovered. According to Nic, Grayson's workshop has been deluged with a crazy amount of orders because of the holiday season. And since Nic got a new boy at the shop, Jack has chosen to skip several shifts to help the old man instead, apparently having checked many times with Nic in advance to make sure the shop owner's okay with it.

Jack has also sent her texts to make sure she's not upset with his current absence, especially before their date. And she was taken aback by his sudden straightforwardness of affection—compared to his evident awkwardness he'd shown whenever the conversation started poking around his feelings for her in her presence—when she received the first text among the said ones. Though a big part of her kept reminding herself that she had over-interpreted his words.

I am still roaming on Earth, wandering around helping Grayson spread Christmas love. Please don't take away the chance for me to show you mine. Pretty please? I'd make you special coffee. —Jack

Anna had teased her blushing features when she checked the text and had asked to know what had been written in the message. Elsa had struggled extra longer than before before she handed her sister the phone. And she quickly regretted it later that day when everytime Anna passed her and started singing The Beatles' "Love Me Do". Anna had also insisted in going to the coffee shop for breakfast the next morning to meet Jack in person. Elsa fairly believed that the beaming sister was more into teasing the boy rather than meeting him, and so she was somehow relieved when she knew that Jack had just taken another off of the morning shift.

Anyhow, Nic took their orders during the sisters' visit. The younger sibling and the big man bonded quickly, exchanging jokes and anecdotes. They even had a conversation in which Anna wittily teased the man's boy about having a big crush on her sister (which, according to the younger sister's logic, was rather big for even her pragmatic sister to notice) for ages but having yet gone out on a date with the girl, while Nic proudly announced (no way to know if the man had known that Jack had successfully asked Elsa out to the party) that the one-way street is about to turn two-way. ('Due to the magic of Christmas,' the man affirmed.) Nic then asked if the Iversen sisters had heard about the Christmas party, and made sure to invite both sisters to come. ('Feel free to bring a date,' the host marked before he winked secretly at Elsa as he added, 'or we might be able to offer one, specially for you.')

Snow starts drifting down outside the window when the doorbell rings. Elsa takes a quick glance at the clock: six fifteen, the exact time Jack has said he'd come and pick the sisters up.

Wrapping the scarf around her neck and grabbing her bag, Elsa moves to the hallway and opens the shoe cabinet. She looks up in the direction of her sister's room as she takes out her shoes.

"Ready to go, Anna?" Elsa calls.

Several muffled sounds of ruffling fabric and a thump of a closet door closing, Anna appears from her room, one arm through a overcoat, a khaki thigh-length coat over a similar length white knit one she's already put on under it, and the other hand struggling to get through the stubborn sleeve.

"Ready!" the younger sibling announces triumphantly as she finally gets her coat on properly.

"You look beautiful," Elsa smiles as she sees her baby sister.

Under her two overcoats, Anna has put on a dark green shirt with little white polka dots and had it tucked in a slightly lighter green skirt with a yellow skinny belt around her waist. She's now working on a small red sling bag, letting the bag slung across her small figure and hung on the side of her hip. After she's done, Anna makes a round on her heel to get her sister a full look of herself and gives a playfully bow at her only audience. "The perfect model of a girlfriend ready for the romantic walk with her loving boyfriend on Christmas Eve."

Elsa laughs softly, knees half-bent to put on her shoes as she asks, "when will Kristoff come around?"

"About eight, eight thirty," Anna replies, moving her way to the hallway to get her shoes. "I'd told him the place. He'll be fine."

"Remind the boy to notice the time for me," Elsa says, straightening up.

"We won't be out too late," Anna promises with a big smile. "Just enjoy your date and get yourself the man."

"We should get going," Elsa only states as she opens the door. "Jack's waiting."

"He will be just fine the moment he sees you," Anna giggles, smiling widely at the glare her sister throws her over her shoulder and following Elsa out the door then down the stairs.

Two sisters find the said boy waiting outside the apartment front door, along with his brown-haired friend. The boys have been talking quietly when the sisters show up at the doorway. Jack turns and meets his date's gaze the moment he hears the door open and breaks into a beautiful smile.

"Good evening, ladies," Jack greets.

Standing next to Jack, slightly leaning on one leg, Kipp jerks his head towards the girls, eyes on his friend as he teases with a smirk. "What'd I said, Prince Worry."

Jack throws his friend a warning stare. Kipp just ignores it.

"Hi, Elsa, Anna," the brown-haired boy greets.

It's just a moment before the sisters get to reply the greeting that they see the big black dog sitting patiently next to the bespectacled boy's feet. The dog looks up as if it senses the gaze of the girls and lets out a jovial bark, tail wagging happily behind it.

"Oh, it's so cute!" Anna exclaims, hopping down the front stairs and towards the dog.

"It's a he," Kipp says, patting the dog affectionately on his head. "His name's Spiky. Spiky, this is Anna and that's Elsa."

The dog barks in reply, one time at each sister like he's greeting.

"He's so smart," Anna says fondly, kneeling down to meet the dog at his eye level. "Can I touch him?"

"Sure. Go ahead," Kipp says. "He could tell who's being friendly."

Elsa moves to Jack's side as her sister happily reaches out a hand to scratch the dog behind its ear.

"Hi," Elsa greets softly.

"Hi," Jack says, smiling down at her. "You look beautiful. And very Christmas, actually."

Elsa returns a small smile.

Unlike her sister, Elsa has picked out a more casual outfit. She's in an oversized beige knit sweater covering down to her hip and barely above her denim short skirt. Down the skirt, she has her legs warm in a pair of black wool leggings and her feet in a pair of chocolate oxfords. Other than that, she chooses a green pea coat, pairing with a dark red scarf around her neck, to get herself warm and well in the spirit of Christmas.

"Thanks," Elsa says. And instead of giving immediate comment on how Jack looks, Elsa feigns to run a serious inspection of the boy before she finally nods in consent. "You are not too bad yourself."

"I looked blue and gray," Jack jests with a fake, upset frown as he looks down at himself, light blue tee, navy blue plaid shirt and a gray coat, with a pair of dark blue jeans and matched canvas shoes.

"You look quite handsome to me," Elsa remarks, blunt and genuine, as she smiles up at Jack.

Bright color threatens to flood the boy's cheeks when he suddenly confronts with the unexpected compliment from the girl he dearly adores. Jack's hands seem to have trouble disguising their owner's state of fluster, one awkwardly finding its place in the front jean pocket since it has missed the coat pocket on its way down, the other one going from his blonde lock to the back of his ear before finally settling on the back of his neck. He coughs once before he speaks. "Th-thanks. I mean, it's a great relief to hear so from you. I somehow believed that I'd screw up at the very beginning of the date."

"You were worried about screwing things up?" Elsa asks, amusement in her voice as she catches his eyes, her own slightly squinted that her eyelashes fan over the glint she doesn't know it's there. Jack gives a strange hum in his throat.

"Oh, you'd never know," Kipp chimes in, shoving his hands in his coat pockets as he looks teasingly at his friend and his classmate. "Worry is too small a word here. Paranoid would be much more accurate."

Anna, still kneeling next to the dog, has been darting her eyes from her sister to the blonde young man by turns as if watching a ping pong game, lips twitching in an awkward smile, seeming to try her best not to laugh.

"Were not," Jack retorts, glaring miffedly at his friend's teasing smile. "I thought I'd successfully left Eastmond behind at the shop, guess I'd still missed one."

"Why, I'm helping here," Kipp says with a big grin. "I brought Spiky. The best escort buddy and the ultimate lady killer. Unless you are a cat person or else." His last sentence's addressed to Elsa.

"Oh, I like dogs," Elsa says, looking down at the fluffy black dog, whose mouth has spread into something like a big drooly smile. She smiles back at the dog. "He's so lovely. What kind of dog is he?"

"We guess he's a labernese."

"You guess?" Anna asks as she stands up from her kneeling position, straightening her skirt with both hands.

"Yeah, I found him on the street," Kipp says as he bends down to give the big dog a playful headlock. "Seemed like some family's dog in the neighborhood gave birth to a bunch of puppies and the owner couldn't afford to keep them all, so they left the puppies or just Spiky in a box by the street. Spiky was the only puppy I saw when I passed by. Pretty small with one leg born ill. I supposed that's why nobody took him. I convinced my dad to let me keep Spiky, and had Jack help to pick the name. And you know, well, Elsa knows, the name picking wasn't going very well."

Elsa lets out a soft chuckles as she recalls the said conversation.

"We should promise to never bring this up again," Jack grunts.

"What's the fun in that?" his friend scoffs.

"Hey, that's my line!" Jack exclaims.

"Turnaround is fair play," Kipp shrugs, patting the dog once more before standing up. Spiky barks a happy bark as if agreeing with his owner.

"Spiky," Jack whines with exaggerated sadness, popping his hands on his knees to look eye to eye with the dog. "Didn't I treat you well? I feed you. I play with you. I even offer to brew you coffee. It's not my fault you didn't accept the offer. You can't just take all the attention from the girls and watch your owner bully me, right?"

The sisters giggles at the blonde boy's funny remarks. Kipp rolls his eyes.

"I like you," Anna states bluntly to Jack. "You now have my full approval to date my sister."

"Anna!" Elsa hisses, rosy tinge blossoms in her cheeks.

Jack's face lights up, his smile bright and his eyes crescent-shaped. "Thanks Anna, you are the sweetest."

"The girl that counts hasn't said yes yet," Kipp reminds his friend in a sing song voice as he walks past him, just loud enough for the beaming boy to hear but not the girls.

The glowing air on Jack's face disappears in the twinkling of an eye, and nervousness takes the place. His head snaps to his friend as he queries warily, "you think she'd say no?"

The bespectacled boy drops his head as he gives a frustrated groan. He hisses back impatiently. "For the millionth time tonight, just be your idiotic self then you are fine!"

"But..." Jack tries to say something more but a soft voice chimes in.

"What'd say no?" Elsa asks curiously.

"Er..." Jack exchanges a quick glance with Kipp, his hand once again finding the back of his neck. "Kipp's doubting my choice of coffee for the party."

The statement somehow sounds more like a question as it slips out the blonde young man's awkwardly twitched lips, but seeming to successfully pass without the girl's notice.

"We're having coffee for the party?" Elsa asks curiously. "That's unique."

"You are attending a party held at a coffee shop after all. Nic likes to have his own traditions," Jack explains, quickly recomposing himself by pulling up an easy smile. "We don't have soft drink or alcohol, you either have coffee or hot chocolate or milk. We also serve holiday special after all the food digging."

"Yeah, no matter how doubtful I am," Kipp quirks a brow at Jack as he emphasized the word. "It's still a safe call since Jack's in charge. Nic surely had his lesson last year, didn't he?"

"No way he didn't," Jack says, laughing hard and bright. "The man would've his own shop close if he hired employees with such standard."

"What happened?" Anna asks, bouncing to her sister's side, sounding intrigued by the said event.

"Nic had one of our friend, the least talented I would say, to make the holiday special," Jack says, still struggling with his laughter. "And the result, well, I will put it this way: not even a super sale like himself can make it into the market."

"We agreed the moment we tasted his coffee," Kipp adds with grave seriousness, but a hint of laughter in his voice, "that it is and will be the most memorable and most indescribable coffee one could ever try. Unless you sisters have some special talent for making inconceivable coffee."

"Oh, we are perfectly ordinary," Anna states with pride, chin slightly raised, a perfect copy of her sister's collected assurance.

"That's a very good news," Jack flashes the sisters a wide jocular smile. "Having one like him is surely enough for the whole universe."

Elsa chuckles as realization dawns upon her. "I figured this is Alden you are talking about, aren't you?"

"Sure thing," Jack beams.

"Is he coming to the party?" Anna asks. "I'd like to meet this guy."

"Unfortunately, yes," Jack gives an amplified sigh. "But thinking on the bright side, we get to show him what a brilliant brew of coffee taste like, don't we, little sis?"

Anna gives a jaunty chortle and a clap of her hands. "Let's go get the party started then!"

"Sure, you can walk with me and Spiky," Kipp says, gesturing the dog to follow. "Since your sister's occupied."

"Ooh, wonderful," Anna giggles, throwing an encouraging smile at the blonde young man as she trots past him and her sister. "Have a good walk."

Jack returns a smile before he turns back to the elder sister. He offers Elsa a crooked arm. "Shall we?"

Elsa gives the boy a small smile as she places her hand on his forearm.


I believe some of you've thought I was dead. I meam, it looks like I haven't been updating this story for ages, or even a century? Anyhow, I can't say how grateful I am for you all lovely readers who are still willing to bear with me. I hope this chapter would worth the wait though it's just the start of the date. Just to clear, I didn't mean to stop here if I could put myself finishing the whole date in around 4K or so. But as I kept writing, I found it impossible since I seemed to have a tendency to make a simple scene too lengthy. I also got some researches to do for the next chapter. So, to prevent me from keeping you all waiting any longer, I present you this one-third-date chapter. I sincerely hope you still like it.

Special thanks to maranoismylife, Geminiagate, mowi, beatrixparilla, Rose, Livia Toric, Trapid, Cath, Random guest, Frozen forever, JohnTitor, Peroxyde, Llyhael Aquila, jelsaluver101, Nessie, and the guests for reviewing! They are what keeps me going on and helps me make this story better.

Rose: I feel a bit embarrassing since I may be just another lazy person having not updated for years. But thanks for the suggestion of the gift. Wait and see what she really gets for him in the later chapters.

Trapid: I am glad you like it! And about the scarves, we'll see.

Cath: Thank you so much! I have a great trip. And aren't our Iversen sisters the best? I hope you like this chapter as well.

Random guest: Thanks for bearing with me since I've got distracted once more, but I am finally back! Good guess about the gift, though I can't tell you if you were right until the later chapters. Happy reading~

Frozen forever: Thanks for the suggestion and the review. I am glad you enjoy the story.

Guest #1: Thanks for the guess, but before the big reveal, hope you enjoy this chapter.

jelsaluver101: Here comes the new chapter, I hope you enjoy it as much as you did with the previous ones. And kiss, ahaha, I (really) don't know, we'll see.

Nessie: Thanks for the patience and all, here's the new chapter. I hope you like it.

Guest #2: New chapter! Happy reading!

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Please review and tell me what you think! I love hearing from you guys~

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P.S: I've updated a new one-shot under a lengthy name "Five Times She Says 'I Love You' and Jack Doesn't Return". It's a happy one-shot if you got mistaken by the title. Feel free to go check it if you got the time. Happy reading~

P.S 2: I've got a tumblr account (finally)! I go for 'annewithoutane'. I'd post my updates there if you happened to need it (I am still learning how to do it though).